Charity Shop

Yesterday I spent some time as a volunteer. There is a shop attached to the historical site of which I wrote the day before that sells little gifts and souvenirs; unlike most charity shops, we buy our stock in rather than accepting donations and we earn money to support only this site rather than a national charity.

This is all getting rather convoluted, but is due to my wishing to disguise where I live. I am not sure whether this desire is due to a false sense of the importance of this blog – certainly, now that I am retired there is no employer to be concerned with what I write, and also most people who live in these retirement flats are not sufficiently internet savvy to find my blog, and yet, and yet….. There is also my family to consider (who might not wish to be “outed” on this blog) Certainly anyone finding the site who knows me well would recognise me from the name and photograph, but I find myself unwilling to take it any further.

I really enjoy doing this little job at the shop, particularly as we see a wide range of customers and often get the chance to have a chat with some of them. Failing that, people watching is such great fun. We all tend to work for two or two and a half hours, once a fortnight and usually have the same co-worker. Yesterday I upped our takings by buying one of the mugs on sale (I refused to buy it the day before, when it would have upped somebody else’s takings!)

We had a last minute rush (after a fairly quiet day) just as we were about to cash up; someone came in with a party of 38 to look round the site – it closes at 4.30 as does the shop.) So, we decided to cash up anyway, and left separate in the till on top of the float the extra sales from which today’s volunteers will benefit.

When I arrived, I met the leading light of the Monday Bridge afternoon(who has kindly partnered me for my first two visits) and she told me that we had come in as FIRST pair last Monday. Oh Joy!